Door construction



C. R. SIGLER ETAL DOOR CONSTRUCTION April 23, 1957 Filed Feb. l0, 1955 K A INVENToRs. Cm 777m,

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United States Patent' O DOOR CONSTRUCTION Charles R. Sigler, Niles, Mich., and Kenneth C. Bezanry, South Bend, Ind., assignors to Kawneer Company, Niles, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application February 10, 1955, Serial No. 487,426

2 Claims. ,(Cl. 189-46) The present invention relates to door constructions and particularly to welded door constructions although the made of light metal such as aluminum. The frame members are known by various names, such as frame members, rails, stiles, etc. In certain constructions the rails, as they will be called herein, have been bolted and in others they have been welded. The present invention relates to the latter, i. e., welded type of construction, and has for its primary object the provision of a new and improved welded door including a welded frame which is light, can be made readily and economically, and which possesses considerable strength, rigidity and ruggedness.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a door construction including a plurality of rails united at their corners by welding and in which the construction is such that the resulting joint structure is strong, light, and so located that the weld area is effectively hidden and the welding does not discolor the external surfaces of the structure.

A still further object of the present invention is the provision of a new and improved welded door construction enabling the use of narrow tubular extrusions.

ln brief, the door construction of the present invention includes four rails which are joined at their ends to form a rectangular door frame. The rails are made of tubular extrusions and they are secured to each other by welding which is so located as to be hidden from view and so as not to discolor the observable parts of the door. The extrusions are generally tubular in form. One pair of rails, preferably the vertical rails, are provided with inwardly projecting portions or anges at opposite edges of their inner sides, i. e., the sides which face the interior of the resulting frame. These two rails are also cut to the full height of the door. The other pair of rails, such as the horizontal top and bottom rails are cut to abut against the inner sides of the Vertical rails. They are provided with projections or flanges at oposite edges on both their inner and outer sides. As a result, when the rails are assembled to form a rectangle, only the front and back sides of the horizontal rails abut against the corresponding sides of the vertical rails to provide a joint that is barely discernible. Also, the hat parts of the horizontal rail lextrusions between the flanges on them do not abut against the flat inner walls of the vertical rails between the anges on the latter because of spacing provided by these flanges. Thus, the butt joint between the rails is determined solely by the front and back sides. Also, the weld can be mad-e in the region of the slightly spaced at walls whereby the welding can be accomplished readily and etectively, is hidden, and does not discolor the exterior observable parts of the door.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention 2 will become apparent from the ensuing description of .an illustrative embodiment thereof, in the course of which reference is had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a front elevational view, on a reduced scale, of a door constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevational view illustrating the upper left corner joint of the door with the glazing omitted;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of one of the upper left joints, the View being along the line 3-3 of Figs. l or 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical cross sectional view taken along the line 45-4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional View along the diagonal line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

While the present invention may be utilized in the con-` struction of various structures, it is particularly adapted to the construction of framed structures such as doors or windows. lt is herein shown applied in the construction of a door 10 illustrated in Fig. 1. The door includes four rails, these being the vertically disposed inner hinge rail l2, the outer lock rail 14 and the horizontally disposed top and bottom rails 16 and 18. respectively. all of which are constructed and assembled to form a frame for the door as will be described below. A door handle 20 can be secured to the lock rail M and a glass panel 22 can be secured in the frame work in known manner as by the glazing strips 2K5. s t

One pair of rails, preferably the vertical side rails 12 and i4 are cut to the full height of the door. The other pair of rails lo and 18 are cut to abut against the inner edges of the vertical rails to provide the four butt joints 26-1, 2, 3, d, shown in Fig. l. As can be noted from Figs. l and 2, these butt joints are barely discernible. Also, the welded joint construction is such that the welding is hidden and does not discolor the front and rear surfaces of the rails.

The rails are tubular in form and can be made from aluminum or the like by extrusion. The side rails may be quite similar in construction and only the rail 12 will be described in detail. The tubular part includes a front wall 39; a rear wall 32; an outer edge wall 34, which may have the usual rounded outer surface 36; and an inner edge wall 38. Also, and in accordance with one of the features of the invention7 the rail includes short front and rear projections or llanges 40 and 42 at the inner side of the front and rear walls against which the horizontal rails are abutted. As indicated, the other vertical rail 14 may be generally similar to rail 12 and have an inner wall corresponding to wall 38 and anges corresponding to anges 4h and 42.

The top and bottom rails are also tubular in construction and may be alike except, generally, the bottom rail may be higher than the top rail, as shown in Fig. 1. Because of this similarity, only the top rail has been illustrated and will be described in detail. It has the front and rear walls 44 and 46, the inner and outer side walls 48 and i, and the front and rear llanges 52 and 54 (corresponding to flanges 40 and 42 on the side rails). The top and bottom rails, however, have another set of lianges at their top and bottom sides, respectively, those for the top rail alone being shown. Of these, the front flange is indicated by the reference character 56 and the rear one by 58.

The rails are adapted to be secured by welding so that the joints between them are hardly discernible, the welds cannot be seen and with no external discoloration. Insotar as the joints between the rails are concerned, one of these, joint 26-1, between rails 12 and 16, will now be considered in detail.

To get a good and tine joint in a simple manner, the

Patented Apr. 23, 1957!4 rails are abutted so that the contact is at the exterior front and back side .portions of adjacent rails. Thus, when top rail 16 is cut to length, its front and back walls mi and 46 and anges 52A, 54 and 56, S abut against r'ianges 40-`and 42 on vertical rail 12. There is thus provided a space, indicated by reference character 6@ in Figs. 3 5,'- between walls 3S and 5!) of rails 12 and 16. A similar space 62 is provided between walls 38 and 4S as shown in Fig. 5. Consequently, a good and accurate joint is assured at the exterior of the rail.

When the rails are thus abutted they can readily be welded at a place that is readily accessible but hidden from view when the door is installed. Referring again to joint 26-1, and Figs. 4 and 5, it will be noted that two welds are utilized at each joint. One of these is the weld 64 between walls 38 and 50 and the other is the weld 66 between walls 38 and 48. Viewed in elevation, neither of these welds is observable because they are hidden by thevarious side walls and flanges.

The present invention thus enables the doors to be made simply and economically and the resulting construction is light, strong and rugged. It is usable on tubular extrusions of various dimensions and is particularly well adapted for use on narrow type rails, which have been illustrated. Also, the construction is such that the inner flanges 40, 42 and 52, 54 can be used in conjunction with glazing strips to secure the glass panel to the door.

While the present invention has been illustrated and described-in connection with the details of an illustrative embodiment of the invention, it should be understood that such details are not intended to be limitative of the invention except insofar as set forth in the accompanying claims.

We claim:

1. A door construction, including top and bottom rails and a pair of side rails, the side rails having a length corresponding to the height of the door and the top and bottom rails having their ends abutting against the inner sides of said side rails, each of said rails being of generally rectangular tubular construction with front and back walls and inner and outer walls, each of said front and back walls having a short inwardly projecting ange coplanar with said walls and the front and back wallsof the top and bottom rails each also having a short outwardly projecting ange coplanar with said walls, the ends of the front and back walls and the associated anges of the top and bottom rails abutting against the inwardly projecting flanges on said side rails providing a space between inner and outer walls of the top and bottom rails of the inner walls of the side rails, and welds securing only the inner and outer walls of the top and bottom rails to `the inner walls of the siderails across said spaces at each of the four joints of the door.

2. The door construction set forth in claim 1 in which the welds terminate adjacent to and spaced from the inwardly projecting flanges on said side rails.

References Cited in the tilev of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,671,539 Kiefer Mar. 9, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 661,344 Great Britain Nov. 21, 1951 

